Following the outcry in Israel after the Eurovision Song Contest‘s 2nd semifinal, in which Israel was the only country whose map was not shown prior to its song, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted the Norwegian hosts of this year’s contest to convey their message. During tonight’s final the Israeli map was indeed shown – albeit missing the west bank. Sources in the MFA told Ynet that they insisted Israel “will be shown as a country with borders, and not some amorphous entity”.
Graphics shown in the ESC’s 2nd semifinal::
Graphics shown in the ESC’s final::
I realize that all this might seem like some kind of a bizarre Rorschach inkblot test, making too much out of a graphical element, but I think flags, anthems and maps are important symbols of independence, and it seems every now and again someone figures Israel is fair game.
Did you watch the European Song Contest‘s 2nd semifinal last night? Did you notice it? It came and went really fast, but did you manage to notice how Israel was wiped off the map?
Before each live performance a short video clip about the participating country was shown, but right before that video some on-screen graphics created the map of each country. Yes, each country but one: Israel.
Right before Harel Skaat took to the stage, the same yellow graphics that filled the screen for each other country, that graphics was now squished to the side and quickly disappeared.
Did the 62 years old Jewish nation get the shaft? Did The Jew Among Nations got the regular treatment? Serbia, a country that got its independence less than 4 years ago got similar treatment in the 1st semifinal; Does that fact make it better or worse?
Here’s the video (Don’t blink during the first few seconds):
After solving the Riddle of the Sphinx, there really aren’t that many riddles left to solve. The only one I can think of has to do with Israel Channel 10′s weather map and its representation of famous Israeli landmarks: Mount Hermon has a snowman, Haifa has the Baha’i Shrine, Tel-Aviv has the Azrieli skyscrapers and Jerusalem the Knesset.
Which leads us to the Beersheba conundrum: behind the inevitable camel, there is a complex of buildings which resembles nothing I have ever seen in the city, and certainly nothing that is as easily recognizable as the others mentioned.
Now, this may not be as important to solve as the Iranian nuclear race – but unlike Ahmadinejad, this one is within our reach:
Jerry I’m telling you I have this power. And I have no control over it.
– - Cosmo Kramer – Seinfeld – s05e11
Just two days ago I blogged about the mixed messages sent by Agritech, Israel’s agricultural exhibition, in their full page ads which had both an inviting slogan (The world arrives in Israel! Israel awaits the world!) and a deterring world map featuring relocated countries and arrows pointing every which way.
Well, it only took one phone call to event organizer Atar Krauss (as suggested by a reader of mine) to produce some results. In today’s Maariv newspaper the new ad is partly fixed: the countries are still playing musical chairs (except for Korea, circled in yellow by me, which was moved back), but at least the arrows are pointing to Israel, helping the world arrive there:
